


That One Chance

by ladiesluvleo



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, F/M, M/M, POV Nico, burn in feels with me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 12:04:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13763781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladiesluvleo/pseuds/ladiesluvleo
Summary: When Nico met Leo for the first time, he didn’t think so much of the other guy. Then things changed.





	That One Chance

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like it.  
> A lot of grammar mistakes, I'm sorry.

When Nico met Leo for the first time, he didn’t think so much of the other guy. He found him sometimes annoying, too loud with his rude jokes, and exaggerated. Nico found him unworthy to get to know better thus he had never made an attempt to be his friend. The person who seemed to be on the same term as him was Frank, whose often being made fun of. But it didn’t mean they instantly became best friends or some sort. Nico preferred to be alone and he didn’t need any physical or emotional attachment with anyone. 

That one night, Nico couldn’t sleep. Well, he couldn’t sleep most of the times since his returned from Tartarus. So he went to the mess hall attempting to eat since he couldn’t eat with the others, he had no appetite to eat with them. Maybe he could summon some McDonald’s and maybe the junk foods could help him regain his appetite. Instead, he found Leo, hunching over the table with a serious look on his face staring at blueprint spread on the table. Nico had never seen Leo this serious before, not when they talked strategies that Annabeth scolded him for not being serious. But this time, Leo was so serious he didn’t even realize Nico was around. So Nico made silent moves to the cupboard where they stacked the magical plates and took one and a glass. The clinging glass made Leo jumped and he quickly turned around to find Nico.

“Holy Hephaestus, Nico. I could die of heart attack” Leo sighed in relieve, hand clutched at his chest.

“I was around for a while now, you’re just too serious staring at whatever you're staring at” Nico replied. He was surprised that he didn’t feel or sound upset like usual time others talked to him.

“So, you get hungry too” Leo concluded. He turned around, back to his spread blueprint on the table. No joke detected on his tone. It was neutral, conversational tone.

“I'm still a human” Nico replied, sat on one of the chair, as far away as possible from Leo. He summoned Big Mac on his plate and even though the burger appeared on his plate didn’t quite like Big Mac, it still looked delicious and a chocolate milkshake as a company. “What are you working on?”

Leo looked up; eyes glistened intelligently and a small smile in the corner of his lips. “Nah, just some stuff I'm planning to work on after we return to camp.” He looked back down at the blueprint, a pencil in hand and he scribbled on something. “Hey, want me to do something to your room?”

Nico arched an eyebrow, “why?”

“You're hardly sleeping, I know. Maybe I can install something to make you more relax and comfortable?”

Nico shook his head, “it’s okay, and the room is comfortable enough.”

“Well, if you need anything just tell me” Leo smiled at him and he went back on his blueprint.

Nico didn’t say a word, letting Leo drowned in his calculations, projects, whatever he was currently doing. He was so absorbed in things he did that he didn’t even realize when Nico got up and put the plate back in the cupboard after he rinsed it. Leo didn’t even crack a joke on what he was eating. Guess, Nico liked that side of him better.

~

“I made you something” Leo said as they were on deck, watching the ocean from potential threat. Piper took over the cockpit while Leo and Nico were in charge to guard.

“What?” Nico asked.

Leo pulled out something from his pocket with utmost gentleness. It was Cerberus miniature made of barb wire, a palm-sized and very much alike Cerberus as if Leo had seen it in real life. Nico’s heart leaped at the sight of home, or something from home and he especially liked Cerberus.

“Wait” Leo whispered and he breathed life into it.

Nico watched in awe as mini-Cerberus shook its three heads as if they just woken up from a nap, then it purred, all three heads purred in content. Its black-beady eyes stared expectantly at Nico and Nico scooped it up from Leo’s hand, the dog now running a lap around Nico’s palm.

“How?” Nico asked with sparkling eyes. All he saw was death and here he watched someone breathed life into an object.

Leo laughed in satisfaction. “Guess, the gift of being Hephaestus child?”

“I love it, thank you” Nico smiled for the first time.

Nico didn’t go to sleep once their shift broke. He watched mini-Cerberus running around the table. It barked, growled, purred, and whimpered like real animal. Talking about comfort in his room? Now he had the comfort.

~

That one time Leo set himself on fire and stood right in front of the rest of the crews while fighting Khione, the goddess of snow who sided with Gaea. Knowing well enough that the goddess despised his fire power thus he used it to save them. There were other shouts from the other crews to attack Khione, but every time they moved, Khione attempted to freeze them only to be unfroze by Leo. Until they finally got the message, they shouldn’t be running around if they didn’t want to be taken away to the North Wind palace as an ice statue. They huddled behind Leo.

Nico might consider Percy as the strongest demigod he knew, but Leo was another level of strong. He blasted Khione, sent her to wherever a goddess could end up in one, effective explosion while protecting his friends from the fire he caused. Problem solved with minimal damage, and then Leo went back to work fixing the ship from the explosion.

Nico decided he wanted to get to know him better.

~

Leo had dreams; he had projects to look forward to. The blueprint he worked on every night when the others went to sleep was waiting to be realized. When the seven finally returned to camp in the middle of the fight with Gaea, Nico was so relieved. He volunteered on shadow traveling back to camp with Reyna and Coach Hedge, lugging Athena Parthenos and faced enemies on their way back was finally paid off by seeing him on his beloved Festus, the bronze dragon. But Nico was busy facing his own battle that when Will whispered to him about Octavian and a bit about Leo and Gaea, enough to make him sprint.

Nico should have forced Octavian to stop whatever he planned on doing if he knew the danger he might cause to Leo. But there were deaths that couldn’t be prevented and he knew he could see Octavian’s life was ending. As the Onager exploded, bringing Octavian in the explosion and fired Gaea as well as Leo on his dragon, Nico missed to see that Leo’s life was starting to fade too. It was too late now to come to save him. 

His body found not too far away from his dragon. Lifeless. Piper broke into uncontrollable sobs as Jason held her tight, blaming themselves that they let Leo died. Percy and Annabeth came hurriedly after their battle finished, kneeling beside the lifeless body.

“Wa-wait, maybe…” Percy choked. He tried to summon the water, assuming the water could bring back his life.

“He’s dead” Nico murmured. “I sense it.”

All pairs of eyes stared at him.

“He had crossed the bridge and into Elysium” Nico continued, unaware that the tears started to fall down his cheeks.

Frank brought Leo’s body to his last resting place as he murmured apologies, to receive the last respect from the campers. His shroud burned, his siblings cried and no project could be realized. Nico’s Cerberus peeked from his pocket, watching its creator’s life vanished in flame. Leo breathed life to an object, but he couldn’t breathe life to himself. For once, Nico hated the chance he missed.

“How did you get it?” Hazel asked. They shared Hades Cabin once the proper burial was done and the last respect to the fallen heroes was paid. It was time to rest.

“Leo made this for me.” Nico watched as Cerberus ran around the only table he owned in the cabin. The dog growled and busy playing catch with a small red stick. The only remnant of Leo he could have. The only comfort he could find when things got worse.

Hazel’s expression fell on the mention. She watched as Cerberus ran around and licked Nico’s finger fondly, unaware that its creator had gone.

“Let’s sleep” he announced. He laid on his back, staring at the ceiling in the dark. Cerberus purred contentedly as it slept the night. Nico let his tears pooled on his pillow, unable to hold back anymore. “Goodnight” he whispered in the darkness.


End file.
